SLS Constitution and Policies
Meet our Board of Advisors
Student Board Members
Blanly Rodriguez
Blanly Rodriguez is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, majoring in Political & Social Thought and minoring in Spanish. She is also a pre-law student passionate about public interest law and social justice, and these passions fuel her work as Program Director of Student Legal Services under Student Council. Blanly also serves on other UVA clubs, including the University Judicial Committee and The Cavalier Daily, and loves to read, run, and eat in her free time. Her current favorite artist is Blood Orange!
Ryan Williams: Student Council Representative
Ryan Williams is a third year at the University of Virginia majoring in Public Policy and Leadership at the Frank Batten School as well as minoring in Government. He serves as a Student Council Representative of Student Legal Services and on the Advisory Board.
He is interested in a wide range of legal fields and is currently on a pre-law track. He hopes to make a career in public service. Outside of SLS, Ryan enjoys working out, playing pickup basketball, spending time with family and friends, and trying new food.
He is interested in a wide range of legal fields and is currently on a pre-law track. He hopes to make a career in public service. Outside of SLS, Ryan enjoys working out, playing pickup basketball, spending time with family and friends, and trying new food.
Emmett O'Brien: SLS Intern Representative
Emmett O'Brien is a third-year student from Beaufort, South Carolina, studying in the Politics Honors Program with a minor in French. Outside of SLS, he works as an editorial assistant on the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and has served as an intern on the Crystal Ball newsletter at the UVA Center for Politics. Outside the classroom, Emmett is a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, the International Relations Organization, and the Cereal Club at UVA. In his free time, you can find him hiking, reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel, or avidly watching college basketball (Go Hoos!).
Non-Student Board Members
Alex Hall: Associate Dean of Students, Student Affairs
Alex Hall (she/her) is an Associate Dean of Students and the director of Care and Support Services (CASS) in Student Health and Wellness. Alex works alongside CASS colleagues and University partners to support student's health, well-being, and success through direct intervention, one-on-one student support, and addressing systemic barriers. Alex also provides strategic leadership for the CASS team, and views her role as an opportunity to remove barriers for others doing their best work.
Jennifer Slaughter: Student Affairs
Jennifer is the Special Advisor to the Senior Associate Vice President. She joined the University in 2019 and previously served as an Associate University Counsel and Assistant Attorney General, handling legal matters on behalf of the UVA Medical Center. From 2006-2019, Jen served as Assistant, and then Associate, General Counsel for the UVA Physicians Group. Prior to 2006, Jen was employed in private practice after two judicial clerkships. Jen earned her B.A. in History, cum laude, from Washington & Lee University, and her J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law, where she was on the editorial board of the Dickinson Law Review.
Michael Hemenway: Law Faculty
Michael T. Hemenway has extensive experience as a trial attorney, both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney.
Hemenway has worked closely with street officers, detectives, evidence technicians and experts, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. He has worked as a prosecutor for 7 years and a defense attorney for the 32 years and has tried more than 500 cases as part of Hemenway Law.
Hemenway was a founding board member of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Drug Court and served on the Drug Advisory Community Board in Charlottesville. He co-teaches the Criminal Defense Clinic at the Law School.
Hemenway has worked closely with street officers, detectives, evidence technicians and experts, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. He has worked as a prosecutor for 7 years and a defense attorney for the 32 years and has tried more than 500 cases as part of Hemenway Law.
Hemenway was a founding board member of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Drug Court and served on the Drug Advisory Community Board in Charlottesville. He co-teaches the Criminal Defense Clinic at the Law School.
Deborah Kang: UVA Faculty
Dr. S. Deborah is Associate Professor of History in the Corcoran Department of History and John L. Nau III Associate Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy at the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia.
Her first book, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954 (Oxford University Press, 2017) traces the history of US immigration agencies on the US-Mexico border and earned several awards and accolades. She is currently at work on several law review articles regarding the criminalization of undocumented immigration and a second monograph on the history of immigration legalization in the United States.
At UVA, she teaches classes on immigration law and policy history and the history of the North American borderlands.
Her first book, The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the US-Mexico Border, 1917-1954 (Oxford University Press, 2017) traces the history of US immigration agencies on the US-Mexico border and earned several awards and accolades. She is currently at work on several law review articles regarding the criminalization of undocumented immigration and a second monograph on the history of immigration legalization in the United States.
At UVA, she teaches classes on immigration law and policy history and the history of the North American borderlands.
Ned Michie: Practicing Lawyer in Charlottesville
Ned runs his own law practice in Charlottesville, Virginia, representing clients in criminal and certain civil cases around central Virginia. He has served on the board for a number of years and worked as an SLS attorney near the beginning of his legal career.
